Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, speaks to reporters during a campaign stop in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat on Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Houston. The little-known El Paso congressman, 44, announced Friday that he is challenging incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2018, in an uphill battle in a state that has no elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle ) less

Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, speaks to reporters during a campaign stop in his bid for a U.S. Senate seat on Sunday, April 2, 2017, in Houston. The little-known El Paso congressman, 44, announced Friday that he ... more

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

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Ted Cruz address the media before speaking at a congressional series luncheon at the Marriott Riverwalk on Monday, August 20, 2017

Ted Cruz address the media before speaking at a congressional series luncheon at the Marriott Riverwalk on Monday, August 20, 2017

Photo: Ron Cortes, Freelance / For The San Antonio Express-News

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Cruz-O'Rourke split over Iran nuclear deal decertification

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Add the Iran nuclear deal to the long list of issues that will almost certainly become part of Texas U.S. Senate campaign in 2018.

Over the weekend, both U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and his likely Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke struck out very different positions on the Trump's administration's decision to begin decertifying the agreement.

Cruz in an interview on CNBC called it the "right thing" to decertify the deal, which he said was "designed to allow cheating" by the Iranian government. He called for reimposing sanctions on Iran and reminded viewers during the presidential campaign in 2016 he repeatedly called for ending the nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration.

"I would have ripped to shreds the Iran deal," Cruz said.

But O'Rourke, an El Paso Democrat, took a very different approach over the weekend. He called the Iran deal the "best path to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons."

"Decertifying undermines this, creates uncertainty, separates us from allies," O'Rourke said on social media.

He added that walking away from the deal makes it more likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons.